Machines are made to function by rules and law; men were meant
to live by inspiration from purpose and values. - Michael Armstrong

Legalism
05/13/2018

Definitions

LAW n: Outside of natural law—including physical and
spiritual law, which is the basis
for the consistency of the entire universe—a working definition
of law is custom, conventions, policy, rules, or demands backed
up by threats, fear, force or violence.

LEGALISM n: the doctrine that God has imposed upon mankind by
fiat a so-called moral law, different from natural, scientific law, which
implies an element of arbitrariness on his part. The lesser
form of legalism is the doctrine
that God expects or requires our obedience to this law even when it
conflicts with our own will. A more extreme form of legalism is the
idea that through obedience and compliance with this law is the way
to please God, grow spiritually, and is the pathway to salvation.

Christendom has wrestled with this issue since its inception. Judaism
was certainly legalistic, and of course the early Christians of
Palestine were converted out of this religion, but kept most of the
foundation of the old religion. As the "Apostle" Paul became one of the most
influential leaders, his major dogma was one of grace overriding the
requirements of the law and he even scoffed at some of the Old
Testament law. However, even he couldn't get rid of law entirely,
and let a couple of rules creep in.

Below are several quotes from people that didn't want legalism to
invade their personal life:

The laws of God, the laws of man,
He may keep that will and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs. - A. E. Housman

No poet ever interpreted nature as freely as a lawyer interprets the truth. - Jean Giraudoux

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. - Aleister Crowley

Who ever heard of a clockwork orange?..."The attempt to impose upon
man, a creature of growth and capable of sweetness, to ooze juicily
at the last round the bearded lips of God, to attempt to impose, I
say, laws and conditions appropriate to a mechanical creation,
against this I raise my sword-pen." -
Anthony Burgess

Prisons are built with stones of law, brothels with bricks of
religion. - Blake

Men would be great criminals did they need as many laws as they make. - Darling

Law is born from despair of human nature. -
Ortega y Gasset

Marriage is the only legal contract which abrogates as between the
parties all the laws that safeguard the particular relation to which
it refers. - G. B. Shaw

Nature hath no goal though she hath law. - Donne

The law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich
as well as the poor to sleep under bridges. - France

Lawgivers or revolutionaries who promise equality and liberty at the
same time are either utopian dreamers or charlatans. -
Goethe

Bad laws are the worst form of tyranny. -
E. Burke

The more corrupt the state, the
more laws. - Tacitus

I
know well what I am fleeing from, not what I am in search
of. - Montaigne

Written laws are like spider's
webs, and will like them only entangle and hold the poor and weak, while
the rich and powerful will easily break through them. - Anarcharsis

I
will make a new covenant,...not like the covenant which I made with
their fathers....But this is the covenant which I will make....I will
put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts. - Jeremiah
31:31-33

I
will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their
hearts. - Hebrews 8:10

The
golden rule is that there are no golden
rules. - G. B. Shaw

The bottom line:

Remember, the J-person defined sin as holding a false or wrong concetot
of God. The idea that God would impose fiat law upon us is foundational sin!